A new state wildfire prevention plan says one way to protect people, homes and the ecosystems from severe wildfires is to double down on reducing human-caused ignitions.
And efforts underway along Interstate 8, a known hot spot in California, are being praised by the state as a prevention model.
Over the past five years, the state Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has mowed tall weeds and cleared dry brush along the I-8, which state and federal wildfire officials said has made a noticeable impact in preventing more fires.
“Caltrans has really been doing an excellent job of mowing along Interstate 8 and that mowing has reduced the ignitions substantially,” said Jeff Heys, a landscape manager with the U.S. Forest Service for Southern California. Caltrans, in collaboration with Cal Fire and other wildfire agencies, is now working on a long-term solution to reduce ignitions caused by human activity, Heys said.
“It includes replacing invasive ignitable grasses, primarily grasses, with less ignitable native plants, where it makes sense to have plants,” he said.
The draft plan, dubbed the California Wildfire and Landscape Resilience Action Plan, is the first update to the state’s inaugural five-year plan to address California’s wildfire problem.
“California has made major progress over the past several years through an unprecedented level of funding, commitment to a science-based approach, and a collaborative effort among the key agencies and land managers,” Patrick Wright, who directs the task force behind the plan, said in a June statement. “This plan builds on that progress by providing a framework to work faster and smarter across larger landscapes and communities, and to sustain that work over time.”
The 54-page report suggests that to lower wildfire severity, save lives and conserve native ecosystems, local, state and federal agencies, as well as tribes and community organizations, must work together to thin overly dense forests, prevent more ignitions and restore severely burned areas, such as native shrublands that have turned into grasslands because of too many wildfires.
“We have millions of people living where communities and wildlands meet,” said Heather Cady, the director of Wildfire Resilience and Forestry at the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County. “It’s about acknowledging that and acknowledging that we can't solve those challenges like project by project or jurisdiction by jurisdiction. We have to work together. We have to coordinate regionally.”
Unlike Northern California, Southern California’s large and destructive fires have been driven largely by Santa Ana winds and human-caused ignitions.
“95% of our wildfires are human-caused,” said Cal Fire Capt. Oscar Sotelo.
The Mission Fire series is one of several examples, he said. On a Saturday morning in May, more than two dozen fires started one after another near Fallbrook. Cal Fire investigators determined that fragments from a catalytic converter on a malfunctioning vehicle caused the blazes.
So far this year, Cal Fire has reported more than one dozen wildfires, charring at least 7,000 acres, within its jurisdiction in San Diego County.
The state plan envisions a future where fires in Southern California are limited to natural ignitions.
The public can comment on the plan through Aug. 7 and the final version is expected to be published this fall.
